אִשָּׁה
woman
also: wife, female fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Absolute-state word in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Common
- A common noun — a general class of person, place, or thing (“king,” “city,” “water”), not a specific name.
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
Gender
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Every verse where H802 appears in the Book of Exodus — 34 distinct verses. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Exodus
- Exodus 1:19 כַ/נָּשִׁ֛ים prep det + n c fp The midwives said to Pharaoh, "Because the Hebrew women aren't like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous, and give birth before the midwife comes to them."
- Exodus 2:2 הָ/אִשָּׁ֖ה ptcl def.art + n c fs The woman conceived, and bore a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months.
- Exodus 2:7 אִשָּׁ֣ה n c fs Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, "Should I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you?"
- Exodus 2:9 הָ/אִשָּׁ֛ה ptcl def.art + n c fs Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this child away, and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages." The woman took the child, and nursed it.
- Exodus 3:22 אִשָּׁ֤ה n c fs But every woman shall ask of her neighbor, and of her who visits her house, jewels of silver, jewels of gold, and clothing; and you shall put them on your sons, and on your daughters. You shall despoil the Egyptians.
- Exodus 4:20 אִשְׁתּ֣/וֹ n c fs cs + sfx pers 3ms Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt. Moses took God's rod in his hand.
- Exodus 6:20 לְ/אִשָּׁ֔ה prep + n c fs Amram took Jochebed his father's sister to himself as wife; and she bore him Aaron and Moses: and the years of the life of Amram were a hundred and thirty-seven years.
- Exodus 6:23 לְ/אִשָּׁ֑ה prep + n c fs Aaron took Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab, the sister of Nahshon, as his wife; and she bore him Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.
- Exodus 6:25 לְ/אִשָּׁ֔ה prep + n c fs Eleazar Aaron's son took one of the daughters of Putiel as his wife; and she bore him Phinehas. These are the heads of the fathers' houses of the Levites according to their families.
- Exodus 11:2 וְ/אִשָּׁה֙ conj + n c fs Speak now in the ears of the people, and let them ask every man of his neighbor, and every woman of her neighbor, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold."
- Exodus 15:20 הַ/נָּשִׁים֙ ptcl def.art + n c fp Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dances.
- Exodus 18:2 אֵ֣שֶׁת n c fs cs Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, received Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her away,
- Exodus 18:5 וְ/אִשְׁתּ֖/וֹ conj + n c fs cs + sfx pers 3ms Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses into the wilderness where he was encamped, at the Mountain of God.
- Exodus 18:6 וְ/אִ֨שְׁתְּ/ךָ֔ conj + n c fs cs + sfx pers 2ms He said to Moses, I, your father-in-law Jethro, have come to you with your wife, and her two sons with her.
- Exodus 19:15 אִשָּֽׁה n c fs He said to the people, "Be ready by the third day. Don't have sexual relations with a woman."
- Exodus 20:17 אֵ֣שֶׁת n c fs cs "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's."
- Exodus 21:3 אִשָּׁה֙ אִשְׁתּ֖/וֹ n c fs n c fs cs + sfx pers 3ms If he comes in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he is married, then his wife shall go out with him.
- Exodus 21:4 אִשָּׁ֔ה הָ/אִשָּׁ֣ה n c fs ptcl def.art + n c fs If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself.
- Exodus 21:5 אִשְׁתִּ֖/י n c fs cs + sfx pers 1cs But if the servant shall plainly say, 'I love my master, my wife, and my children. I will not go out free;'
- Exodus 21:22 אִשָּׁ֤ה הָֽ/אִשָּׁ֔ה n c fs ptcl def.art + n c fs "If men fight and hurt a pregnant woman so that she gives birth prematurely, and yet no harm follows, he shall be surely fined as much as the woman's husband demands and the judges allow.
- Exodus 21:28 אִשָּׁ֖ה n c fs "If a bull gores a man or a woman to death, the bull shall surely be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the bull shall not be held responsible.
- Exodus 21:29 אִשָּׁ֑ה n c fs But if the bull had a habit of goring in the past, and it has been testified to its owner, and he has not kept it in, but it has killed a man or a woman, the bull shall be stoned, and its owner shall also be put to death.
- Exodus 22:16 לְ/אִשָּֽׁה prep + n c fs "If a man entices a virgin who isn't pledged to be married, and lies with her, he shall surely pay a dowry for her to be his wife.
- Exodus 22:24 נְשֵׁי/כֶם֙ n c fp cs + sfx pers 2mp and my wrath will grow hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.
- Exodus 26:3 אִשָּׁ֖ה אִשָּׁ֖ה n c fs n c fs Five curtains shall be coupled together one to another; and the other five curtains shall be coupled one to another.
- Exodus 26:5 אִשָּׁ֖ה n c fs You shall make fifty loops in the one curtain, and you shall make fifty loops in the edge of the curtain that is in the second coupling. The loops shall be opposite one to another.
- Exodus 26:6 אִשָּׁ֤ה n c fs You shall make fifty clasps of gold, and couple the curtains one to another with the clasps: and the tent shall be a unit.
- Exodus 26:17 אִשָּׁ֖ה n c fs There shall be two tenons in each board, joined to one another: thus shall you make for all the boards of the tent.
- Exodus 32:2 נְשֵׁי/כֶ֔ם n c fp cs + sfx pers 2mp Aaron said to them, "Take off the golden rings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them to me."
- Exodus 35:22 הַ/נָּשִׁ֑ים ptcl def.art + n c fp They came, both men and women, as many as were willing-hearted, and brought brooches, ear-rings, signet-rings, and armlets, all jewels of gold; even every man who offered an offering of gold to Yahweh.
- Exodus 35:25 אִשָּׁ֥ה n c fs All the women who were wise-hearted spun with their hands, and brought that which they had spun, the blue, the purple, the scarlet, and the fine linen.
- Exodus 35:26 הַ֨/נָּשִׁ֔ים ptcl def.art + n c fp All the women whose heart stirred them up in wisdom spun the goats' hair.
- Exodus 35:29 וְ/אִשָּׁ֗ה conj + n c fs The children of Israel brought a freewill offering to Yahweh; every man and woman, whose heart made them willing to bring for all the work, which Yahweh had commanded to be made by Moses.
- Exodus 36:6 וְ/אִשָּׁ֗ה conj + n c fs Moses gave commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, "Let neither man nor woman make anything else for the offering for the sanctuary." So the people were restrained from bringing.
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
“woman” is the headline sense of the Hebrew noun אשה (ʼishshâh). Not a single-sense word: its full sense range also takes in “wife” and “female”. It appears 686 verses across 33 books of the Hebrew Bible, among its most common vocabulary. Scripture first uses it in Genesis 2:22. It shares a root with איש, איש and אישון. The sections below give every sense, occurrence, and version rendering.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H802 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 686
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 686 distinct verses.
- 33 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 33 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #60
- by frequency
- Top 100 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 60 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 686 occurrences in the concordance →
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 686 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 282 verses · 41%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 267 verses · 39%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 137 verses · 20%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
BDB lists this Strong’s number as 2 distinct words (homographs). Each count above pools all of them and is not split by sense — see the Senses section below. A low-frequency rendering may belong to a different one of those words, not the primary meaning.
- King James Version†: Wife 257×, Woman 163×, Wives 96×
- American Standard Version†: Wife 183×, Woman 152×, Women 84×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Wife 242×, Woman 151×, Wives 88×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Woman 213×, Wife 209×, Women 88×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H802 across 778† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 94 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 2 further occurrences.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H802 across 775† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 122 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H802 across 712† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 62 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 60 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H802 across 803† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 44 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in the full BDB
What do BDB’s symbols mean?
BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 𝔊 | the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX) |
| 𝔙 | the Vulgate (the Latin translation) |
| 𝔖 | the Syriac version (the Peshitta) |
| 𝔗 | the Targum (the Aramaic translation) |
| ψ | the Psalms |
| √ | root (the underlying root or stem) |
| ‖ | parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel) |
| † | the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited |
The 4 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.
- 1. woman Gn 3:1, 2; 12:11 +; opp. man 2:22, 23 Ex 35:29; 36:6; Dt 17:2, 5; 22:22; 1 S 21:5 +; א׳ emphat. a genuine (or ideal) woman Ec 7:28 (‖ אדם); sim. of men as feeble, timid Je 50:37; 51:30; note especially הַטַּף בַּנָּשִׁים the children among the women, female children Nu 31:18 (P); as conceiving Ex 2:2; Lv 12:2; 2 S 11:5 +; travailing Je 13:21; bearing children Ju 13:24; 1 K 3:18; cf. Jb 14:1; 15:14; 25:4 +, etc.; suckling Is 49:15; אֹרַח כַּנָּשִׁים Gn 18:11; דֶּרֶךְ נָשִׁים 31:35; with adj., or app., א׳מֵינֶקֶת nursing woman, nurse Ex 2:7; א׳ זוֹנָה harlot Jos 2:1; 6:22; Ju 11:1; 16:1; 1 K 3:16; Pr 6:26; Je 3:3 Ez 16:30; 23:44; so א׳ זָרָה Pr 2:16; 7:5; cf. also Ez 23:44 supr.; א׳ מְנָאָ֑פֶת adulteress Pr 30:20 (cf. אֵשֶׁת אִישׁ 6:26), אֵשֶׁת זְנוּנִים Ho 1:2; נָשִׁים נָכְרִיּוֹת foreign women 1 K 11:1, 8; Ezr 10:2, 10, 11, 14, 17, 18, 44; Ne 13:26, 27 (cf. v 23); א׳ חֲכָמָה wise woman, one known as clever, shrewd 2 S 14:2; 20:16, etc.; also א׳ פִּילֶגֶשׁ concubine Ju 19:1, 27: א׳ אַלְמָנָה widow 2 S 14:5; 1 K 11:26; 17:9, 10; א׳ נְבִיאָה prophetess Ju 4:4; also cstr. bef. noun of quality אֵשֶׁתרָ֑ע Pr 6:24; א׳ כְּסִילוּת 9:13; א׳ חֵן 11:16; א׳ חַיִל 12:4; 31:10; Ru 3:11; א׳ מִדְיָנִים Pr 21:9; 25:24; 27:15; א׳ מ׳ וָכָ֑עַס 21:19. e.g. Genesis 3:1
- 2. Wife (woman belonging to a man, usually cstr. or sf.) Gn 2:24, 25; 3:8, 17; 4:1, 17 + often; of one betrothed (ארשׂ) Dt 20:7; 28:30; בַּעַל (הָ)אִשָּׁה Ex 21:3, 22; אִישׁ הָאִשָּׁה Ju 20:4; לְאִשָּׁה to wife Gn 12:19; 16:3; 34:21 + often (after לָקַח, נָתַן husband or father subj.); for wife (after הָֽיְתָה, woman subj.) Gn 20:12; Nu 36:3, 6(×2), 11, 12; Dt 22:19, 29 +; for unfaithful wife cf. 1; cstr. in phr. אֵשֶׁת חֵיקֶ֑ךָ Dt 13:7 cf. 28:54; א׳ נְעוּרֶיךָ Pr 5:18; Mal 2:14, 15; א׳ בְּרִיתֶ֑ךָ v 14; אֵשֶׁת אָב = step-mother Lv 18:8, 11; 20:11. e.g. Genesis 2:24
- 3. Female of animals Gn 7:2(×2); v. also sub 4. e.g. Genesis 7:2
- 4. With distrib. & recipr. sense, א׳ מֵאֵת רְעוּתָהּ each woman from her neighbour Ex 11:2 (E); cf. Ru 1:8, 9; Je 9:19; each one, of birds of prey Is 34:15 cf. v 16 (del. Bi Che); of cows (fig. of heartless women of Isr.) Am 4:3; of sheep (fig. of Isr.) Zc 11:9; & of inanimate things (P, & late) א׳ אֶל אֲחֹתָהּ Ex 26:3(×2), 5, 6, 17 (P) Ez 1:9 (del. Co) v 23; 3:13. e.g. Exodus 11:2
Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.
Word origin
I. n.f. woman, wife, female (Arabic أُنْثَى, Sab. אנתֿת etc. DHMZK 1884, 360, Aramaic אִתְּתָא, אִנְתְּתָא, אִתָּא, ܐܰܢ̱ܬܬܴܐ, Palm. Nab. אנתתא, Ethiopic አንስት Ph. אשת, Assyrian aššatu COTGloss)—א׳ abs. Gn 2:23 +; cstr. אֵשֶׁת Gn 11:29 + (appar. abs. Dt 21:11; 1 S 28:7 ψ 58:9 but cf. Bö§ 728 Ges§ 130, 5); sf. אִשְׁתִּי Gn 20:11 +; אִשְׁתְּךָ Gn 12:18 + (אֶשְׁתְּךָ ψ 128:3), etc.; Pl. †אִשֹּׁת Ez 23:44 (Co לעשׂות); נָשִׁים Gn 4:19 +; cstr. נְשֵׁי Gn 4:23 +; sf. נָשַׁי Gn 30:26; 1 K 20:7; נְשֵׁיכֶם Ex 22:23 +, etc.;—
II. v. sub III. אנשׁ. אִשֶּׁה v. sub אֵשׁ.
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from איש (ʼîysh) (H376) — man.
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
אִשָּׁה
- v. איש,, const. אֵשֶׁת, woman, wife. Pes. VIII, 1. Ab. Zar. 25ᵇ א׳ כלי זיינה עליה woman carries her weapon with her, is protected against murder by gentiles (who would rather assault her innocence). Ib. א׳ חשובה a woman of high rank (influential). Ib. אִשְתּוֹ משמרתו his wife’s presence guards him from wrong-doing; a. fr.—Pl. (נָשׁוֹת) נָשִׁים q. v.
אִשֶּׁה
- burnt-offering, v. אִישֶּׁה.
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 238 distinct written forms H802 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
The 60 most common forms are shown; 178 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H802, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derives from
Shares the same root
- איש ʼîysh H377 to be a man
- אישון ʼîyshôwn H380 pupil
- אישחיל ʼÎysh-Chayil H381 a mighty man, valiant man
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
- אישבשת ʼÎysh-Bôsheth H378 Ishbosheth
- אישהוד ʼÎyshᵉhôwd H379 Ishod
- אישטוב ʼÎysh-Ṭôwb H382 Ish-tob
- אשבעל ʼEshbaʻal H792 Eshbaal
- בןימיני Ben-yᵉmîynîy H1145 Benjamite
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 10 — not the complete family. 5 of the same-root words are proper names (people or places). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 662 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 686 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
- Genesis 2:22
- Exodus 1:19
- Leviticus 12:2
- Numbers 5:6
- Deuteronomy 2:34
- Joshua 1:14
- Judges 1:12
- Ruth 1:1
- 1 Samuel 1:2
- 2 Samuel 1:26
- 1 Kings 2:17
- 2 Kings 4:1
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
